=========So I'm minimal in how to shift around models, but more on getting the most out of my load out and drone choicesAlso my pathfinders where build to specs in the infiltraton cadre of the Burning Dawn set (1 ion and 2 rail).

I'm playing tomorrow evening vs a combination of renegades, heretics and chaos marines

Yeah, the issue here is that you don't really have enough models to play 1000 points, so you'd need to stack a bit of wargear to fill the gap. I think we can make the wargear more efficient, to try and even the odds a bit. Anyway, this is the "core" of the list, right?

In total, that's 797 points. So, you need 203 points to get to 1000, and we want to prioritize bringing lots of models to the table. You also should have tons of Drones right- with the sets you have, about 15 right? In your case, assembling all but three or four of as Gun Drones would be pretty viable. I'm not sure on your total number of Drones though, so I'll assume 15 and we can edit the final list if you actually have more. We'll put 6 with the XV8s, and 6 in a squad that will act as a screen against melee units (Chaos will have lots of those!). We'll also take those Pathfinder drones as a big unit, complete a Shield Drone too.

Now we still have 71 points left to spend. We'll put two Shield Drones with the Commander, and I'd also upgrade the XV8s to carry Fusion Blasters instead of ATS. the 2xFlamer+1xFusion Blaster is a tried-and-tested build used in a tournament last month. Finally, we'll give the Fire Warriors their Support Turret w/ Missile Pod too.

Also I found that in my 500 point games I was playing the Markerlight game a lot with the marker drones first and loading it out where needed with the pathfinders. I think I want to keep that strategy going

id give the pirahna a fusion, even if its modelled with a burst. Its a great platform for getting into melta range. Drop the recon drone to pay for it. Tau already have an abundance of S5 shots, no need to pay 70+ points for a measly 4 more.

Lechai Skull wrote:id give the pirahna a fusion, even if its modelled with a burst. Its a great platform for getting into melta range. Drop the recon drone to pay for it. Tau already have an abundance of S5 shots, no need to pay 70+ points for a measly 4 more.

It's magnetized so I can swap it out, but I find it to expensive to field it with a FB for the BS it has and the role I want to use it in. namely get that thing across the board and tie up a shooty unit in combat. I expect it to die soon as it's the only vehicle I have also if I keep it out of combat flying around.

Won 11 - 2 on a maelstrom game, had a good position starting and had first turn and the objectives fell my way for scoring points. In the end I shot most of his army off the table

Commander dropped in on turn 2 had stagefright or cold feet.. all his shots hit but all failed to wound on the heretic tank (T8 vs S8).. only rolled below 4 even with a CP...He killed a few mutants in cc and shot one (the last one) on overwatch, but that was it. Well it was his first battle leading..Ethereal didn't do much and his buffs weren't needed on the strike team.Strike team with the added range from the Pulse drone did what was needed. And with some bad positioning was able to take out his psyker in a later turn (also for an objective card)XV8's also dropped in on turn 2 on the homeing beacon and fried about 10 of his troops there and took out the whole rest of the unit in shooting / combat afterwards, took the only 2 wounds from the tank, killed 2 termi's, got killed by his warlord, I was satisfied with their performance.Stealths did what they needed to do, and also made sure to contest the objective he needed for his first point.Pathfinders good ML platform.. 1 ion still underwhelming... 2 rail awesome! Killed another termi otherwise didn't have very good targets on the table ( 3 big groups of mediocre guard like units)Piranha did what I wanted it to do by taking out the mutants shooting an keeping them locked down after 2 rounds of shooting into them. It was taken out by the psyker doing exactly 6 mortal wounds.Tac Drones almost wiffed all the markerlights, probably was influenced by the commander

All in all a good overal performance and a great game! With some really bad luck on his part..2 units needed to roll to determine Ld.. D6+2.. both of those rolled a 1.. so with LD3 he saw more run way then he wanted

But I will be teaming up with a mate of mine that will run 1 Knight Errant and 1 Knight PalladorSo I feel that there is no need for a QFB Commander. Is it better to equip him with the Missile pod setup?And any other changes needed?

But I will be teaming up with a mate of mine that will run 1 Knight Errant and 1 Knight PalladorSo I feel that there is no need for a QFB Commander. Is it better to equip him with the Missile pod setup?And any other changes needed?

I'd drop the special drones since you don't have enough firewarrior meat to justify the points. I would also recommend taking vespid instead of a regular piranha since they actually can do something and are also super fast and annoying.

I would also probably swap the 4 ML drones and shield drone for more gun drones. Don't think you need 11 lights in this list but that's my two cents.

Commander rocking either CIB or MP's is fine and another reason why you don't need all the markerlights since you can just pop mont'ka and reroll some misses if you go that route. I still think a QFC is the way to go in my opinion.

But I will be teaming up with a mate of mine that will run 1 Knight Errant and 1 Knight PalladorSo I feel that there is no need for a QFB Commander. Is it better to equip him with the Missile pod setup?And any other changes needed?

I'd drop the special drones since you don't have enough firewarrior meat to justify the points. I would also recommend taking vespid instead of a regular piranha since they actually can do something and are also super fast and annoying.

I would also probably swap the 4 ML drones and shield drone for more gun drones. Don't think you need 11 lights in this list but that's my two cents.

Commander rocking either CIB or MP's is fine and another reason why you don't need all the markerlights since you can just pop mont'ka and reroll some misses if you go that route. I still think a QFC is the way to go in my opinion.

Thanks for the input Yojimbob, but changing models is the problem here (this is all I have and will have to do) so it will need to come from loadouts.. yes even the drones are fixed (eventually I just want a sh*tload of drones to be able to field what I want anyway, that is why I am looking for seperate drone discs)

And if I still field the QFC it means I probably need to make the Ethereal the Warlord (just 1 in the whole team can be the warlord) because I handle the QFC as a glass canon deep striking him in to pop something big.. but that is where the 2 Knights now com in to do that job.

But I will be teaming up with a mate of mine that will run 1 Knight Errant and 1 Knight PalladorSo I feel that there is no need for a QFB Commander. Is it better to equip him with the Missile pod setup?And any other changes needed?

It depends on the loadout for the Knight Errant and Knight Pallador. However, basically your entire list is anti-tank. The Commander is anti-tank, the XV8s are anti-tank. the Imperial Knights are probably anti-tank/anti-elite. You need more versatility, I think. That means CIBs. Also, you probably don't need so many Markerlights.

Let's assume the Knight player can use some versatile weapons though. With these changes, you'd end up with this list:

This list is only 930 points and it's more efficient than the previous 1000-point one. Use those remaining 70 points to get another Piranha, to get more Fire Warriors, to add more Gun Drones; just add some more competitive units in there.

I probably don't need the ML drone unit, I Agree on that for the effectiveness of the ML.. but I do need them for the Outrider Detachment for that extra 1 CP.. the Knights (2 times heavy aux detach) aren't going to provide anything on that department. Also I found the drone unit usefull for objective grabbig / holding.

As for the knights this is the loadout he was thinking of going with:Errant:H. Stubber, Questor Mechanicus, Reaper Chainsword, Stormspear rocket pod, thermal cannon

StealthKnightSteg wrote:I probably don't need the ML drone unit, I Agree on that for the effectiveness of the ML.. but I do need them for the Outrider Detachment for that extra 1 CP.. the Knights (2 times heavy aux detach) aren't going to provide anything on that department. Also I found the drone unit usefull for objective grabbig / holding.

It's good for those reasons, but I bet we can fill that points gap with a better unit. Let's see.

StealthKnightSteg wrote:As for the knights this is the loadout he was thinking of going with:Errant:H. Stubber, Questor Mechanicus, Reaper Chainsword, Stormspear rocket pod, thermal cannon

So, with that loadout, we have a mix of all sorts of things. Some light anti-infantry firepower in the form of the Stubbers, but otherwise big guns and melee weapons designed to carve through tanks. They're going to do almost nothing against infantry, unless they can get into close combat (where they might kill 4-5 models).

You want to bring anti-infantry if you can. I'm not sure what models you own, but something like this could be pretty useful:

Bringing a Fireblade and an extra Pathfinder would probably better, so feel free to make that change if you have a Fireblade. This list is basically just designed to support the Knights- let them stroll in and chop up the tanks, while you fly around their feet and attack things that might threaten them. If you don't like Flamers you can always switch out the 9x Flamers for 6x CIBs and 3x ATS. If you do that, also drop one Homing Beacon and reduce the Gun Drone squads to 2x4 or 1x8. What do you think?

StealthKnightSteg wrote:I probably don't need the ML drone unit, I Agree on that for the effectiveness of the ML.. but I do need them for the Outrider Detachment for that extra 1 CP.. the Knights (2 times heavy aux detach) aren't going to provide anything on that department. Also I found the drone unit usefull for objective grabbig / holding.

It's good for those reasons, but I bet we can fill that points gap with a better unit. Let's see.

StealthKnightSteg wrote:As for the knights this is the loadout he was thinking of going with:Errant:H. Stubber, Questor Mechanicus, Reaper Chainsword, Stormspear rocket pod, thermal cannon

So, with that loadout, we have a mix of all sorts of things. Some light anti-infantry firepower in the form of the Stubbers, but otherwise big guns and melee weapons designed to carve through tanks. They're going to do almost nothing against infantry, unless they can get into close combat (where they might kill 4-5 models).

You want to bring anti-infantry if you can. I'm not sure what models you own, but something like this could be pretty useful:

Bringing a Fireblade and an extra Pathfinder would probably better, so feel free to make that change if you have a Fireblade. This list is basically just designed to support the Knights- let them stroll in and chop up the tanks, while you fly around their feet and attack things that might threaten them. If you don't like Flamers you can always switch out the 9x Flamers for 6x CIBs and 3x ATS. If you do that, also drop one Homing Beacon and reduce the Gun Drone squads to 2x4 or 1x8. What do you think?

Well I don't own any other models then what I listed before (yet) I can only adjust load out on the Commander, XV8's, XV25 and Piranha. I know it isn't much, so mostly my question focusses on the loadout for the Commander and if it's a good idae to go QFB with him as I actually think I need a more durable Warlord.. but with QFB he is likely strudding around close to enemy's making him a prime target for the Warlord kill. If I do that then the Ethereal needs to be the warlord but as soon as one unit is closest to him they only need to look at him to drop him from his hover drone

Though I do hope I can save enough money to buy myself that 130 Euro christmas box from last year, as my local shop still has one, maybe next month (but that will be too late for the tournament)

But I do see that keeping the Commander with the 4 Fusion Blaster setup is still best in this conjunction? And I was indeed thinking about going trip Flamer on the XV8's

StealthKnightSteg wrote:Well I don't own any other models then what I listed before (yet) I can only adjust load out on the Commander, XV8's, XV25 and Piranha.

Sorry about that! I'll keep that in mind. Definitely proxy the Ion Rifle as a Rail Rifle though- no one will care, let alone notice.

StealthKnightSteg wrote:I know it isn't much, so mostly my question focusses on the loadout for the Commander and if it's a good idae to go QFB with him as I actually think I need a more durable Warlord.. but with QFB he is likely strudding around close to enemy's making him a prime target for the Warlord kill. If I do that then the Ethereal needs to be the warlord but as soon as one unit is closest to him they only need to look at him to drop him from his hover drone

...

But I do see that keeping the Commander with the 4 Fusion Blaster setup is still best in this conjunction? And I was indeed thinking about going trip Flamer on the XV8's[/quote]The Fusion Commander is still good. With two Knights walking around, the Commander will either get shot at (letting the Knights devastate their army unmolested) or the Knights will get shot at, leaving the Commander. Either situation gives you an advantage as long as your opponent doesn't roll absurdly well.

A few odd choices in here- the Support Turret, Pathfinder Drones, and Seeker Missiles on the Piranha aren't competitive choices but they're the best options available to you to make it to 1000 points. However, if you don't want these upgrades, we can give the XV8s a CIB loadout and shift the points around. The list would play very differently but it's an option: